Pager Shenanigans and the ops SUP war

Hi everyone, I hope this post finds you all well. I know the posts are coming few and far between, but I’m deployed, so deal with it! Not much has changed here lately, although it is starting to cool off; it no longer gets up to 125 during the day, it’s only about 105-110 at the peak of the day, which is actually a vast improvement. This base is closing down rapidly now, so it’s a constant struggle to try and accomplish anything that involves support agencies. I guess that’s no different than normal since the “support” agencies normally just make you do their job for them. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been to Finance and been told, “You have to fix this on your own,” I wouldn’t have to talk to finance ever again since my financial troubles would effectively be over. In fact, I bet I could retire and buy an island in the Caribbean with those funds.

The main group of our squadron has left for our new location already, and a skeleton crew has been left here to close this location down and continue flying missions before we deliver the jets to our new location in a short time. I am excited that I will be one of the last crews to fly a jet out of this field, ne’er to return. It’s not something everyone gets to do. But in the meantime, I’m back to living out of my backpack and attempting to live the vampiric lifestyle of the night crew. The other day, we found out that the main group of operators was heading out two days earlier than planned, and when I say we “found out,” I mean a pilot in our squadron found a group of us playing cards at the rec center and says, “Oh hey, they moved the date up by a couple of days for the main move.” I replied, “A couple of days? As in about 18 hours from now?” He said, “Yeah… I guess so. Maybe you should check the squadron to make sure you have all of the info.” I passed out a little earlier than planned so I could get into the squadron earlier than planned so I could double check the schedule and make sure I did have whatever “info” they had for us. I showed up pretty early and found out I had been thrown on the schedule to fly, and had to be in crew rest a number of hours ago. This is what I would consider important information to disseminate. Dan pointed out, “We’ve had pagers on us since we got here. Doesn’t this seem like the PERFECT time to use it?” I said, “Maybe our trailers aren’t pager friendly.” Truthfully though, I tend to agree with him. So for most of the squadron, the last day ended up being a blur of outprocessing and attempts to mail gear either home or to our new location. I have the distinct advantage of having a couple extra days to try and get my ducks in a row before I leave (even though I already had everything done – I don’t always procrastinate), and I get to take my own jet there, but one of the squadron superintendents informed me that I still have to outprocess like I was leaving on a transport. This is what I had to say:

Me: Why do I have to go turn in this crap to PERSCO? I’m taking my own jet.
Superintendent: Because they need to know you have everything in order and sign off on your checklist.
Me: Why? Are they going to make me come back if I don’t have their signature?
Superintendent: Well…No, but you still need to make sure all the paperwork is good to go. They’ll get pretty pissed if you just left.
Me: Are they going to turn green and start smashing things? I have everything I need and I promise you I will double check the forms on the jet before I leave.
Superintendent: That’s not what I mean. Please go by there and turn your stuff in before you go.
Me: We’ll see.

Obviously I’ll be a good Captain and go over there and placate the almighty wrath of the paper stampers, I just find it completely ridiculous that I can’t leave on an OPERATIONAL mission without someone looking at my paperwork and saying, “Yes, you can go. I hereby verify that you are not retarded and have done everything you need to do to outprocess.” Plus, it’s kind of depressing going to the out bound passenger terminal knowing you aren’t going home for a LONG, LONG time. So in the meantime, I’m still hanging out here, flying a little bit and conserving laundry as hygienically as possible, and biding my time before I leave this base behind. It won’t be missed AT ALL.

In other news, a number of the sensors on the night crews have started a campaign to get me brought over to the night schedule permanently. They are literally bugging the crap out of the scheduler trying to get me shifted over so I can fly with them, which is awesome. Simultaneously, someone has started an insidious campaign for me to become the new Operation Superintendent, or ops SUP. A couple of guys had targeted one of the more experienced Captains to try and make him the newest ops SUP, and I guess someone decided that I would be a perfect fit for that job as well. Not that it would be that bad, I would have to sit in front of a computer for 15 hours at a time and say timely things on the radio like, “SUP copies,” or “Stalker driver, line 8 step,” but the point is someone is targeting me. I will not go quietly, and payback will most certainly be a bitch for the offending party. I’ll keep y’all updated on the ops SUP war, and the move in general. Sorry this update is so short and lacking the usual amount of humorous anecdotes, I’ll try and write something longer whenever I get settled into the new location. Take care!

Wellen